World Briefing / Britain

Early Bible pages united digitally

The surviving pages of the world's oldest Bible have been reunited -- digitally.

The work, known as the Codex Sinaiticus, has been housed in four separate locations for more than 150 years. But it is now available at www.codexsinaiticus.org so scholars and others can get a look at what the British Library calls a "unique treasure."

The Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 leaves of prepared animal skin, each 15 by 13.5 inches. It is the oldest book that contains a complete New Testament and is only missing parts of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha.

The 4th century book, written in Greek, has been digitally reunited in a project involving groups from Britain, Germany, Russia and Egypt, which each possessed parts of the 1,600-year-old manuscript.